"Ministry of Puppetganda Press Conference - Friday, July 28, '000": 

During the time leading up to the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in 2000, the Philadelphia Direct Action Group and the R2K Legal Collective, among many others, protested the Republican platform, especially around the Criminal Injustice System, & worked toward larger protests during the RNC itself.  

The government of the City of Philadelphia was determined to create an impression that the city & the denizens of Philadelphia were completely supportive of the RNC.  In violation of First Amendment Rights, they refused to issue permits, they gave the RNC access to all of the public spaces in town - in courting the RNC, the Republicans were told that no protests would be allowed & that all public spaces would be given over to the RNC uses - including keeping those spaces from being occupied in any sort of 

protest capacity.  All of the protests that culminated in August 1st began many months before that with the City's decision to not allow any protesting to occur - political activists had to sue the City in order to get permits - ultimately the government only issued 2 for 

legally protected marches: one for a march called "Unity 2000", which happened the Sunday before the Republicans even arrived in town, the other for a march for universal health care that occurred on Monday, July the 31st.  

The activists put alotof time into coordinating & building puppets & signs & banners that would represent in the streets what their major issues were as far as the Republican platform & the Criminal Injustice System were concerned.  The scale of this puppeteering was very ambitious & was bound to attract major media attention.  The folks who built those puppets & the puppets themselves were never allowed to leave the 

building in which they worked.  The warehouse was surrounded by police on the day scheduled for the protesting to begin, the puppets were destroyed, & the 70+ people inside the building were just walked out & arrested.  It was a private space that was legally rented by a private citizen who didn't mind his space being rented for a month.  That happened on the morning of August the 1st.  

Four of the people who were in the warehouse who claimed to be union representatives 

were actually undercover cops.  The testimony of these people is partially what led to the pre-emptive strike on the puppeteering protestors.  

This footage, shot by Rita Rodentia of the Street Ratbags & Money Against Capitalism 

is of the Ministry of Puppetganda's Press Conference on Friday, July 28, '000.  RATical, of the same 2 groups, was asked at the last minute to be a mediator for the 

conference to try to interface between the 'reporters' & the Puppetistas.  Reputedly, CNN aired the entire conference on TV in the wee hours of the morning.  How the other media presented it is unknown to this writer.  

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This footage is partially made available for historical purposes but also to show the 

type of political expression that is sometimes suppressed without the general public even being aware of it.  

- May 12, 2021E.V. notes from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE 

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